So don’t expect President Trump to be part of the solution….And since this is part 3, I’m referring to economic challenges. President Trump has always made bold promises with nothing to back it up. Getting to the newsfeed articles, lots of Americans are struggling financially, which leads to struggles in all aspects of life. Young people burdened with high student debt are also squeezed by rising housing costs: affordable-housing-why-millennials-living-mom. Here’s another huge problem adding to their misery: the-college-dropout-problem-most-education-advocates-dont-talk-about & also college-poor-students. Out in the country all is not well, as explained in why-do-americans-stay-when-their-town-has-no-future & these excerpts from why-rural-americans-are-far-less-optimistic-about-their-financial-future:
Across the country, Americans’ anxiety about their finances is worsening. And rural residents are far more pessimistic about their financial prospects. Only 36% of Americans living in rural counties — who don’t earn enough to pay for the lifestyle they want — believed that situation would improve in the future, according to a new report from the Pew Research Center. Comparatively, nearly half of those living in urban and suburban areas who were in the same boat were optimistic about their financial futures. The findings were based on a survey of more than 6,000 people conducted between February and March. Driving this gap are rural residents who don’t have a bachelor’s degree. Among these people, only 34% believe they will eventually earn enough to lead the life they want. This demographic represents a larger share of residents in rural counties than it does in other parts of the country. Only 19% of people in rural areas have a bachelor’s degree, versus 31% of those in the suburbs and 35% of urban residents. Overall, the poverty rate is the highest in rural areas at 18%, versus 17% for urban areas and 14% for the suburbs. But it’s actually the suburbs that have seen a dramatic uptick in poverty: The number of residents in suburban counties who live below the poverty line increased 51% between 2000 and 2016, but only increased by 23% in rural areas.
So why then are rural residents more inclined to view their financial futures negatively? For starters, they’re earning less than their counterparts in other parts of the country. On average, a worker in a rural county earned just over $35,000 per year, which is more than $10,000 per year less than the average income of workers in urban and suburban regions. Rural residents also have greater anxiety about the job market: 42% say that the availability of jobs in their community is a major problem, compared to 34% of urban residents and 22% of suburbanites. The only problems more commonly cited among rural residents were drug addiction and access to public transit. Non-white residents of rural counties were even more likely (53%) to say that job availability was a concern. And unlike their counterparts in other areas of the country, inhabitants of rural communities are less likely to move. Among people under the age of 50 in rural counties, 54% have lived in their community for 11 or more years, versus 38% of suburban and 32% of urban residents.
Many of the largest corporations were already swimming in cash long before being graced with the proceeds of the large Trump tax cuts, so it’s unlikely anything has changed in the trajectory of significantly raising capital investments & paying employees higher wages. Those chiefly benefiting are chief executive officers & shareholders, as recent stats show 60% of the windfall are going to shareholders with only 15% going to workers, so the tax bill becomes a classic example of the rich getting richer. If you believe the workers are once again the ones left holding the bag, you’re right! Check out trump-tax-cuts-arent-trickling-yet & these excerpts from broad-based-pay-rises-retraining-automation-executives, which fall under the category of gee, I thought the tax cuts were gonna solve this! Since workers are not reaping the benefits, it’s mandatory we go back to the drawing board & find much much much better remedies:
Very few Americans have enjoyed steadily rising pay beyond inflation over the last couple of decades, a shift from prior years in which the working and middle classes enjoyed broad-based wage gains as the economy expanded. Now, executives of big U.S. companies suggest that the days of most people getting a pay raise are over, and that they also plan to reduce their work forces further. This was rare, candid and bracing talk from executives atop corporate America, made at a conference Thursday at the Dallas Fed. The message is that Americans should stop waiting for across-the-board pay hikes coinciding with higher corporate profit; to cash in, workers will need to shift to higher-skilled jobs that command more income. Troy Taylor, CEO of the Coke franchise for Florida, said he is currently adding employees with the idea of later reducing the staff over time “as we invest in automation.” Those being hired: technically-skilled people. “It’s highly technical just being a driver,” he said. The moderator asked the panel whether there would be broad-based wage gains again. “It’s just not going to happen,” Taylor said. The gains would go mostly to technically-skilled employees, he said. As for a general raise? “Absolutely not in my business,” he said.
Very interesting inside this link: Trump-s-Economy-the-True-Definition-of-Fake-News & likewise in here: The-Next-Middle-Class-Hit-From-the-Party-of-Fiscal-Insanity. Rubin offers an accurate assessment in this beginning to heres-what-the-gops-ossified-tax-policy-ignores:
The majority of GOP officeholders, along with many conservative think-tankers and pundits, continue to cling to 1980s economic policy, however ill-attuned to 21st-century America. They insist that lowering top marginal tax rates on the rich is the key to economic success, forgetting that the top marginal tax rate is already about half of what it was before President Ronald Reagan’s tax cuts (70 percent) and ignoring the huge geographic gaps in wealth and productivity. Cutting top marginal tax rates might give a momentary boost to the economy and help the rich get richer, but it does nothing to address the staggering geographic divide between aging, poorer rural America and richer urban America. Not only do the vast majority of struggling, non-college-educated Americans in rural areas pay little federal income tax (and hence benefit minimally from cuts in federal income tax rates), but they have real needs for which supply-side economic theory has no effective response.
The leader of our northern neighbor shouldn’t have to state the obvious, but as Americans this crisis seems lost on us, so we keep kicking the can down the road until one day we’ll run out of road: trudeau-says-u-s-borrowing-is-unsustainable-touts-longer-view. It’s a very difficult financial circumstance to be in when homeowners owe more on their home than the house is worth. Lots of people are in that boat, despite it being a decade since the housing market collapsed:personal-finance/homeowners-under-water-mortgages. There are jobs currently in heavy demand, like nurses & truck drivers, but such positions are no picnic: the-us-needs-50000-truck-drivers-to-avoid-a-shipping-squeeze. Trump’s positions are a moving target on any issue he negotiates: trumps-fluid-approach-to-national-and-economic-security-is-leaving-his-allies-baffled. And some of his dealings look quite suspicious: more-than-60-dem-lawmakers-demand-ethics-investigation-into-trumps-relationship-with-china.
Immigration Tweets
On the immigration/DACA issue, some in the GOP are seeking solutions, but the radical right are still squashing reasonable proposals: gop-leaders-scramble-to-contain-immigration-rebellion. Even beyond the immigrants already here, we see a couple tweets that came out over the holiday weekend about taking children away from their desperate mothers at the border, one from Erick Erickson giving a very thoughtful poignant perspective, & another from President Trump which was a blatant lie concocted to smear his political opposition:
Erick EricksonVerified account @EWErickson 22h22 hours ago
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Pro-lifers, if you’re upset about ripping a child out of his mother’s womb, please be upset about ripping a child out of his mother’s arms at the border. Responding to illegal acts with evil acts is not the way of a moral people.
The horror of mothers having their kids taken away is compounded from reports our government agency in charge has lost track of 1500 of these children. Click on trump-fabricates-law-requiring-separation-of-migrant-children-and-parents-a-lie-to-hide-his-policy & also trump-blames-dems-for-his-most-horrifying-immigration-policy & also immigrant-kids-tracking-immigrant-children-us & see these excerpts from trump-tweet-outrage-immigration-lies where Trump’s tweet is posted:
Nowadays, it takes a lot for Americans to become incensed about Trump’s tweets. We need at least one World War threat or nuclear weapon tangent to wake up and realize we’re seconds away from doomsday. The President still has that magical ability to completely eviscerate our joy. Take Saturday’s tweet, where Trump — in one of his worst lies yet — had the audacity to complain that Democrats were responsible for separating parents from their children at the border. “Put pressure on the Democrats to end the horrible law that separates children from there parents once they cross the Border into the U.S. Catch and Release, Lottery and Chain must also go with it and we MUST continue building the WALL! DEMOCRATS ARE PROTECTING MS-13 THUGS,” Trump wrote.
Put pressure on the Democrats to end the horrible law that separates children from there parents once they cross the Border into the U.S. Catch and Release, Lottery and Chain must also go with it and we MUST continue building the WALL! DEMOCRATS ARE PROTECTING MS-13 THUGS.
The poor souls at Politifact have likely been working overtime the past three years, trying to capture each and every one of Trump’s lies. It’s impossible to overstate the damage these particular 226 characters could do. Outrage has been mounting over the holiday weekend as multiple reports revealed that ICE was now separating children from their parents at the border. The Trump administration is now seeking to criminally prosecute everyone crossing the border, including asylum seekers. Parents are to be placed in the criminal justice system while their children put into military facilities via the Office of Refugee Resettlement. It is unclear when these parents will be reunited with their children, if at all. An estimated 700 children have already been snached from their parents. Recently, a 53-week-old babyseparated from their parent and appeared as an unaccompanied baby in court. This is not an Obama-era policy. This was not imposed by Democrats. This was not instituted by George W. Bush. It’s a spectacular evil of Trump’s own making. The already troubled agency has reportedly lost track of 1,500 “unaccompanied minors” they placed, whether they were deported, refused contract, or were lost to traffickers. As White House chief of staff John Kelly told NPR in an interview weeks ago, he hopes the policy will act as a “tough deterrent …The children will be taken care of—put into foster care or whatever.” Now, social media is asking: #WhereAreTheChildren? The hashtag was a constant presence on Twitter all day on Saturday as people demanded answers on the missing children.
The only reason these families would take desperate measures to find a new home, is because they come from desperate situations where they may not survive the violence: ill-be-killed-if-i-go-back-undocumented-immigrant-refuses-to-board-flight-at-jfk. In this link Abbreviated-pundit-roundup-Trump-s-cruel-and-inhumane-immigration-policy & also will-trump-finally-pay-a-price-for-his-abject-cruelty & also trumps-ugly-spin-about-separated-children-gives-away-his-game & these next excerpts from the-trump-administrations-immigration-policies-are-impossibly-cruel-thats-the-whole-point, we discover how President Trump uses cruelty as a weapon:
Amid growing outrage over the Trump administration’s policy of separating children from their parents when families arrive at the border, many are asking how the administration can be so cruel as to literally tear children from their mothers’ arms. There’s a clear answer, one that runs through all of the administration’s policies on immigration: The cruelty is the whole point. It’s both a reflection of President Trump’s beliefs and those of his key advisers on immigration, and a practical tool they are using to reduce the number of immigrants coming to the United States. There won’t be a more humane set of policies coming out of this administration, because they have no interest in being humane. So when you hear horrifying stories from the border of families being ripped apart, understand that the administration is perfectly happy for those stories to be told. They have no compassion for the human beings involved, and they want others who might consider coming to the United States to know how heartlessly they’ll be treated. It’s the whole point.
Puerto Rico
As I repeatedly stated last fall, the federal response to the major hurricane that slammed Puerto Rico was abysmal! It could just be as far as our president is concerned, it was the wrong demographics for the optics he wants to use in energizing his base. It smacks a bigoted tone much like his Charlottesville response last year. I question whether Trump even realizes these Puerto Rican people are Americans, but whatever the reason, it was a major tragedy made far worse by our delayed, inadequate & badly coordinated response. At the time Trump claimed just like the aid that poured into Houston & Florida after their hurricanes, the government response to Puerto Rico rated a 10. Maybe he was grading that on a scale of 1-1000. Click on harvard-study-estimates-thousands-died-in-puerto-rico-due-to-hurricane-maria & also new-study-estimates-hurricane-maria-death-toll-in-puerto-rico-could-exceed-4000 & also study-puerto-rico-hurricane-death-toll-was-70-times-higher-than & also puerto-rico-death-toll-trump-failed-after-hurricane-maria & also trump-once-favorably-compared-puerto-ricos-death-toll-to-katrinas-a-new-study-shows-more-than-twice-as-many-died & also donald-trump-failed-to-help-puerto-rico-after-hurricane-maria & also does-maria-count-as-a-real-catastrophe-now-mr-president & finally trump-is-responsible-for-puerto-rico.
Holiday Honoring Soldiers
Even honoring fallen vets on Memorial Day, the prez also managed to make it about himself: veterans-group-blasts-trump-apos & also vet-group-calls-president-trumps-memorial-day-message-the-most-inappropriate & also Trump-s-ego-recognizes-no-holidays-Every-fallen-patriot-should-be-thankful-for-Trump & also trump-inappropriate-memorial-day-message-bombs-not & finally president-trump-makes-memorial-day-all-about-himself-again. His lack of empathy & understanding are indicative of a president not up to the job: the-measure-of-trumps-devotion. We should all feel a sense of obligation to call out our president’s dishonesty, lack of virtue & faux patriotism: trump-is-no-patriot-and-we-all-should-say-so. And there’s not much in here to disagree with: trump-doesnt-lie-he-does-something-worse.
Disappointing
There should be another book on Trump, The Art of the No Deal. Hear Fareed’s take: fareeds-take-sot-trump-deals-gps. Even those optimistic about the Trump presidency should now acknowledge disappointment, since despite what his base thought, all this was never about them. These excerpts from putting-the-i-in-president explain all along it was only about one person:
It was a distant, though fervent, hope. When Donald Trump became the 45th president, I, along with so many Americans, harbored an aspiration that he would feel the weight of the office he had taken, find what Lincoln would have called the “better angels” in his nature, and put the office — and implicitly the needs of the nation — above himself. But as Memorial Day approaches, with its echoes of service, humility and tradition, I know that my hopes have been dashed. When President Trump mouths platitudes on Monday about our service members paying the ultimate sacrifice for our nation, it will be hard for me not to recall how he belittled Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for spending six torturous years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. “He’s not a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured,” Trump said.
I knew, of course, who the Electoral College had tapped when the 2016 presidential election went unexpectedly Trump’s way: a crowing, preening narcissist whose scorched-earth path to the White House was blazed with incivility, bullying and an overt lack of grace. But this, after all, was the highest office of the greatest nation in the world. It was reasonable to expect those who reach it to find the best in themselves, to evolve into the role as they recognize the awesome responsibilities of the job, to put “we” over “me.” But it was not to be. An article in the New York Times this month on the ailing McCain included a quote from Bob Kerrey, former Democratic senator from Nebraska and Medal of Honor recipient for his service in Vietnam, who, referring to Trump’s lack of devotion to the greater good, said chillingly, “[Trump] may be the opposite of every president we’ve ever had.” It may have been an understatement.
Far from doing the greatest good for the greatest number, Trump has proven to be constitutionally incapable of putting anything above himself, or of thinking in any meaningful way about those he serves, especially those in the greatest need. The forgotten man to whom he owes his 2016 election triumph and promised would be “forgotten no more” in his 2017 inaugural address, was dropped almost as soon thereafter. Trump lamented to a group of rabid supporters in Missouri that his proposed tax bill would “cost me a fortune.” But he boasted to a group of wealthy friends at Mar-a-Lago afterward, “I just made you a lot richer.” Among other measures, the bill preserved loopholes for golf course owners such as Trump, which the Obama administration estimated would yield over $600 million over 10 years. The middle class got a paltry $2 to $40 extra in their paychecks bi-weekly — enough, as House Speaker Paul Ryan said of one of his constituents, to buy a $60 per year Costco membership, but hardly a game-changer for those who can’t see a better tomorrow for themselves or their children.
Gerrymandering
This may represent the best opportunity for effectively fighting back against the extremism that has infested both sides in the House of Representatives: supreme-court-to-rule-soon-on-partisan-gerrymander-cases-last-best-chance-for-fair-elections & also retro-gerrymandering-districts.
Midterms
Every election in recent years & going forward is a change election, which will continue to be the case until DC leadership can actually figure something out. A strong economy means nothing to the bottom half of income earners in the working class until the benefits start reaching down to providing them with tangible results. Many in DC are leaving politics fed up with the toxic environment & even more specifically President Trump house-retirements-ryan-costello-jeff-flake-ileana-ros-lehtinen. And the midterms more than anything are likely to be a referendum on Trump juan-williams-midterms-will-be-referendum-on-trump. Is this what the GOP narrative has come down to?: Trump-hammers-home-nativist-fear-mongering-as-the-GOP-s-ultimate-and-really-only-midterm-message & also donald-trump-2018-midterm-strategy. But from this link morning-joe-americans-must-vote-democratic-because-trump & the start to opinion/midterms-trump-democrats, we see that desperate times require desperate measures (us former elephant supporters need to go donkey until we break this toxic fever swamp):
With the primary season winding down and the midterms soon upon us, it’s time to point out that this election is not about what you may think it’s about. It is not a choice between the particular basket of policies offered by the candidates for House or Senate in your district or state — policies like gun control, right to choose, free trade or fiscal discipline. No, what this election is about is your first chance since 2016 to vote against Donald Trump. As far as I am concerned, that’s the only choice on the ballot. It’s a choice between letting Trump retain control of all the key levers of political power for two more years, or not. If I were writing the choice on a ballot, it would read: “Are you in favor of electing a majority of Democrats in the House and/or Senate to put a check on Trump’s power — when his own party demonstrably will not? Or are you in favor of shaking the dice for another two years of unfettered control of the House, the Senate and the White House by a man who wants to ignore Russia’s interference in our election; a man whose first thought every morning is, ‘What’s good for me, and can I get away with it?’; a man who shows no compunction about smearing any person or government institution that stands in his way; and a man who is backed by a party where the only members who’ll call him out are those retiring or dying?” If your answer is the former, then it can only happen by voting for the Democrat in your local House or Senate race. Because what we’ve learned since 2016 is that the worst Democrat on the ballot for the House or Senate is preferable to the best Republican, because the best Republicans have consistently refused to take a moral stand against Trump’s undermining of our law enforcement and intelligence agencies, the State Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Civil Service, the basic norms of our public life and the integrity of our elections. These Republicans have made the craven choice to stand with Trump as long as he delivers the policies they like on taxes cut, gun control, fossil fuels, abortion and immigration, even though many privately detest him.
The Point of No Return
With a White House rocked with scandal, numerous figures from the campaign being indicted, & the Mueller probe closing in, we may be reaching that point (if we haven’t already)….
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